Heart to Heart
by monique42
Summary: In an alternative scene in Prince Charmed, Piper and Chris have a heart to heart talk that helps her understand him better. She doesn't know his true identity yet but when he opens up to her she feels slightly maternal towards him and has no idea why.


**Heart to Heart**

**A/N: **Chris and Piper have a little heart to heart talk in an alternative scene in Prince Charmed. The first part up until Piper says, "Why not?" is therefore transcript from Prince Charmed to set the scene.

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Chris headed towards Piper's room in search of her. He entered the room and found her sitting on the bed flicking through the Book of Shadows. "How am I supposed to protect Wyatt if you don't tell me when a demon attacks until hours later?" he asked, anger in his tone.

"Because, Chris, I'm taking care of it," said Piper, angrily turning over a page.

" That's fine, but what happens if this demon was the one? The one who was after Wyatt. The reason why I came back!" said Chris.

" Well, then you're in luck because I blew him up. Not to mention, how many demons have you said that about so far?" she asked, almost condesendingly.

Chris let out a sigh, "Piper, I've just got Wyatt's best interest in mind."

"So do I," said Piper curtly, closing the book. "Demon's not in here."

"Well, what's it look like?"

"Tall, robed with a metal rod thingy.

"Really? Well, that narrows it down," said Chris sarcastically.

"If another one shows up I'll be here," Piper said matter of factly, clearly bored with Chris' nagging.

"That's just my point, Piper, what if you're not here? What happens if you have a date with the fireman or whoever else you're seeing this week?"

"Look, Chris, I don't want to go into it. But I'm not gonna be out on a date with the fireman or anybody else for that matter, anytime soon, so that I can focus more on Wyatt."

"What!" exclaimed Chris, shocked.

"Did I stutter?" she asked, annoyed.

"Piper, you can't give up on love. Ever," he said earnestly.

"Why not," asked Piper, bitterly. "You have." Chris' face fell and Piper immediately regret her harsh words. She knew it was a cruel thing to say, Chris' wounds were still fresh from loosing his fiancee.

"That's different," he said somberly and in a hushed tone. "I'm still in mourning." He sat down on the nearest part of the bed and let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh Chris, I'm so sorry," said Piper sincerely, anxious to take back her words. "I shouldn't have . . ."

"It's OK," Chris assured her. "Sometimes I just forget that she's really gone."

"It was insensitive of me," said Piper, feeling very guilty for upsetting him when he was only trying to help her.

"Really, don't worry about it. I know you are hurting as well and it musn't be easy not having Leo around and having to look after Wyatt by yourself. The last thing you probably need is some sarcastic guy from the future, who you don't even know if you can trust hanging around," said Chris, staring blankly at the floor.

"Don't be ridiculous!" exclaimed Piper. "I love having you around."

Chris looked up at her with an eyebrow raised and a skeptical look on his face. "Oh yeah neurotic half-witch, half-whitelighters are always a hoot and a half when you're going through a tough time."

"Well it can't be that bad or else I would have thrown Paige out years ago," said Piper, hoping to lighten the mood slightly. She felt better when Chris managed a half-hearted smile. "OK so you can really make me angry at times and I'll admit I spend a lot of time worrying whether or not to fully trust you but as far as I can tell you're a good guy Chris. I mean look at how good your intentions were for me a few minutes ago before I kicked you when you are down! You just seem like you've been through a lot, too much in fact, so who am I to judge you?"

"You have no idea how much that means to me," said Chris whole-heartedly, looking at her straight in the eyes. "But Piper, I meant what I said, you shouldn't give up on love. I mean you and Leo might still find your way back to each other."

"Maybe," said Piper, almost wistfully. "I just don't seem to know anymore but there's always hope. I mean at least he's alive . . . well sort of anyway. I don't know what I'd do if I knew that we could never be together again, that's why I really admire the way you're dealing with loosing Bianca."

"I'm not dealing with it at all to be truthful," admitted Chris, looking down again. "The only way for me to keep going is to push it to the back of my mind. When I can't, I just use it as motivation to ensure I keep Wyatt safe and prevent a repeat in the next future."

"Chris you have to deal with it if you are ever going to move on!"

"What if I don't want to move on?" asked Chris, his eyes beginning to well up with tears as his words poured out with passion and bitterness. "Bianca was the only good thing I had left in my life! I'd everything and everyone else ripped away from me! My mother, my brother, my aunts and uncles, my cousins and even my friends! I was forced to watch as everyone I've ever loved died! She was all I had, she was _everything_ to me and once again I was helpless to do anything but watch as she died in my arms and I wasn't even powerful enough to avenge her death, I barely escaped with my own life!" Chris was fuming by this point as a single, solitary tear trickled down his cheek at these painful memories.

"Oh Chris," said Piper, hesitating for a split second before putting a comforting arm around the distraught young man. It felt strangely natural to her to be close to him like this and she suddenly felt protective of him and had no idea why. All the doubts, suspicions and trust issues she'd ever had with him dissolved and for that moment at least it felt like the most important thing in the world was to console him and make him feel like everything was going to be all right. "I'd no idea."

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have. . . I . . . I didn't mean to . . ."

"It's OK," Piper assured him. "Sometimes you need to let it out. Keeping that much bottled up all the time isn't healthy and venting is often an important part of the grieving proccess."

"I think I'll always regret not kissing her one last time," he said, his voice cracking and filled with such regret and pain that Piper could feel tears forming in her own eyes as her heart ached for him. "I know that I have to change the future, for her, for us, for everyone. It's just that everything seems so much more difficult now that I know she's gone, even the simplest things like remembering to eat, talking to people, not breaking down every other second. Even every breath seems like a grueling chore at times."

Piper tightened her grip on the grief stricken young man, pulling him closer to her in an attempt to comply with the out of nowhere urge that she had to soothe, comfort and console him. "I know it's hard to loose people you love but you have to move on or you'll never be at peace. I'm not the sort of person who easily accepts things or moves on either but _eventually_ I accepted that there was only so much time and energy I could spend being angry with the world before I had to face up to reality and start living again.

I know it's a cliche and that it probably doesn't seem like it now but it really does get easier with time, I mean the pain never completely goes away but it does get surprisingly easier. I mean it is great that this is motivating you towards your goal but you're only twenty two years old! That's far too young to have this much pent up pain, anger and agression plauging you. You should be out having fun not mourning th death of your fiancee. I know life as a witch can be unfair and hard but you are a strong person Chris. You'd have to be to get this far so I know you can get through this."

"You have that much confidence in me?" asked Chris, with a mixture of doubt and hope in his voice.

"Yeah actually I do, though don't ask me why, but I truely do. It's a strange feeling."

Looking at the sincerity in her eyes and the warm smile on her face, Chris had never had so strong an urge to let everything out, tell her who he really was and hug her properly for the first time in eight long years . . . but he couldn't, as much as he wanted to he knew he couldn't. He knew he was just feeling vulnerable now, having let down his guard for the first time since arriving in the past and being so close to his mother and not being able to tell her everything was difficult but he'd have to manage. At least his mom had faith in him, even if she didn't know why. He reluctantly stood up, pulling himself away from her touch, her soothing touch that made all of his worries temporarily fade away and cleared his throat.

"Thanks Piper," he said, . "Phoebe may watch her back, there's another budding advice columist in the house!"

Piper gave a small laugh and hoped he couldn't tell how awkward she was feeling after being so close to him. When he had left her side, the spell seemed to break and they had started to return to their normal roles already. "Well I won't be quitting the day job just yet."

"And you won't be quitting on love either, right?"

"No, I guess I won't be," said Piper, smiling.

"Good," said Chris. "Call me if you remember anything else about the demon that was after Wyatt, alright? I'm going to see if I can find anything out in the Underworld," he said, regaining his compusure to fit his charade of the unattached whitelighter, who only cared about hunting down and vanquishing the next demon.

Piper was almost sad to see this transformation as she had felt they had progressed so much in their relationship when he opened up to her. They had shared deep, meaningful, painful memories in the most intimate conversation Piper had had in a long time. She'd never expected to have a conversation like that with Chris of all people but she was glad she had. It had changed a lot of things in her mind. He didn't seem so cold anymore, he just seemed lost, alone and hurting. She recognised now that his distant and unattatched demeanor was just the result of barriers he had put up to protect himself from

getting hurt again, and the little pieces of insight she had just gained into his life meant that she couldn't blame him. Everything has changed between them, before where there had been suspicion there was now understanding.

"Chris?" she said, before he orbed out.

"Yeah."

"I do trust you and I know you are going to create a better future for everyone."

She looked at him and saw a flicker of something in his eyes; Happiness? Familiarity? Longing? But before she could put her finger on it, it was gone. The tall, dark haired whitelighter simply grinned, gave an appreciative nod and orbed out.

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A/N: Sorry for any typos, I don't have spell check.

Hope you enjoyed and please be kind enough to leave a review!


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